
The company had robust tools, fan demand, and a hefty budget, so it wanted to make the most of the new Source engine.īoth Episodes were popular, successful games, but as time went by and those short experiences were all fans saw aside from cosmetic upgrades and ports, public opinion started to turn.

These short games, each around four to six hours, were presented as stopgaps before the next big leap of Half-Life 3. Instead of a full-fledged sequel to Half-Life 2, Valve released Half-Life 2: Episode 1 in 2006, followed by Episode 2 a year later. Coupled with a much grander story and improved graphics, it was unsurprisingly the most lauded release of 2004.

With the introduction of the Gravity Gun, players could now manipulate environmental objects in a way that wasn’t shooting and blowing them up. Narrative was now expected in first-person shooters, so Newell and company decided to work on something different: physics. Using the company’s new Source engine, the sequel cost $40 million to develop and pushed a new set of envelopes. Six years later, Half-Life 2 did it again. Let’s delve into what Half-Life meant to an earlier generation of gamers, as well as where-and if-it fits into the modern world. But will it be enough to stand out in a world that has seemingly moved beyond the franchise? Fans were upset, then annoyed, and then eventually resigned to the belief that Valve had just given up.Īnd then, an unexpected announcement: Alyx will bring gamers back to the world of Half-Life, with an all new adventure in virtual reality. Gabe Newell’s juggernaut of a company has always practiced a “when it’s done” approach to their games, but when it came to the third full Half-Life game, “when it’s done” is apparently “never.” Originally slated for a 2007 release, the game just… never happened. That’s because it’s Half-Life: Alyx, the first installment in Valve’s company-defining franchise in thirteen years. There are a lot of games coming out this year, but one particular title has received an outsized amount of media attention, despite being yet another VR first-person shooter. How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.

